Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Shots Fired in North Burnaby

and really, who knew?

"Just after 9 pm on January 8, 2009 the Burnaby RCMP received a number of reports of people hearing shots fired in the 8700 block of Centaurus Circle. Numerous officers were dispatched and attended to the area. A number of spent shell casing were located. Neighbourhood inquiries were done, however, no one actually saw the shots being fired. At this time the Burnaby RCMP have received no reports of any property damage, or injuries to a person. The Police Dog attended to the scene as did the Forensic Identification Section.The Burnaby RCMP have no information to indicate why this occurred in this area. ..."

Well, its not far from my area (I walked over to take the pic) and friends who live in that neighborhood tell me its become, like much of the district, a place where drug dealers operate openly in the streets. So that takes care of the "why" mystery.

Now, nothing of this appeared in any media I can find and that's not really surprising. Lacking a bullet-riddled corpse or two, or at least a shot-up vehicle, the Vancouver media take little interest in such events out in what is to them the boonies And of course, the local papers in the burbs tend to be puff pieces wrapped in ads, pretty much useless for real news reporting.

All of which makes me think that, as bad as the guns and gangs problem seems, its probably even worse because its actually under-reported. How many of these incidents occur out here in the burbs and don't become general knowledge?